Studying Modern Languages at university lets me delve into the most powerful tool we possess: communication. But it is much more than that. Language is an art. Words are powerful. They persuade, move, manipulate and shock, and it's unsurprising that society today is controlled by them. My degree lets me explore how different societies are shaped by the languages they use, how a language is as much a means of communication as it is an integral part of a country’s culture and identity

Monday, 23 February 2015

Arabic: A Language Away From Home

If a language is such a vital part of a country or community - of its culture, its traditions, its personality - what happens when a language finds itself away from home? Immigration is an ever-increasing, controversialissue in today's constantly-moving world - and of course, when people move, their language moves with them. It becomes an Immigrant language; a language that has been taken away from its home and into a new, host country, where it will come into contact with new cultures, new traditions and of course new languages. It becomes vulnerable, changeable and, very often unprotected.

Even a language with as much power and status as Arabic, the fifth most widely spoken language in the world, can struggle when taken into a new environment. Arabic
is France’slargest immigrant language, with over one million speakers.Most of
these originate from the Maghreb, a region of North Africa encompassing the three
countries of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. They are therefore speakers of
Maghrebine Arabic, one of the vernacular (or colloquial) varieties of Arabic found throughout the
Maghreb region. France’s historic relationship with this language dates back to
the colonization of North Africa, lasting from 1830 until the 1960s. During
this time, young men from these countries were recruited to fight alongside the
French in World War I.Many
others were brought over to France to provide relief and manpower to replace
French workers serving in the Army.

By the 1970s, following a second wave of immigration after World War II , Maghreb communities were
present in most major French cities, often on the outskirts in the banelieus, forming small ‘language islands’.
With no intention of staying permanently, these immigrant workers acquired a
minimal level of French to manage in the work domain, whilst maintaining Arabic
separately for use in the home. In this way, their native Maghrebine Arabic
remained largely safe from French interference for some time.

Despite
their initial aims to return to North Africa, many Maghrébins decided to settle in France permanently, deterred the
poor job prospects in their origin countries. Today, Maghrébins remain the largest immigrant group in France; people of
Algerian, Moroccan or Tunisian decent account for about 30% of all immigrants.

However, despite these large numbers of Maghrébins in France, their language is declining. Why?

Although Modern Standard Arabic is hugely powerful and dominant as a language of global communication, the Maghrebine dialect that is spoken within
immigrant communities in France is stigmatizedas an inferior
language of low prestige. This negative attitude is one of the factors
impacting language maintenance and shift within these communities in France. First
generation immigrants do on the whole remain loyal to their native language,
promoting its use at home and within their community. For them, Maghrebine
Arabic remains an important part of their culture and ethnicidentity. Second
generation immigrants show less affiliation towards their mother tongue, for
whom its function has become rather obsolete. French, the dominant majority
language, has replaced Arabic in all domains as the primary means of
conversation. The historic attitude of ‘assimilation’ in the French education
system is another contributing factor. It
seems that, although French, with its power and prestige, has overtaken as the
primary language for communication, Arabic will continue to retain its symbolic
function as a means of identification with and expression of ethnic roots
within Maghrebi communities in France.